18 Inspirational Quotes on Goal Setting

In addition to curating content here, I also train people on using humor in the workplace. I recently gave a training on communication and was looking for a quotation that expressed the importance of having an agenda in meetings. I ultimately went with:

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” –Peter Drucker

But while searching, I also came across these 17 inspirational quotations on the importance of having a goal:

1. Yogi Berra

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” -Yogi Berra

2. Ernest Hemingway

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” –Ernest Hemingway

3. Paulo Coelho

“Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.” –Paulo Coelho

4. Lewis Carroll

Cat: Where are you going?
Alice: Which way should I go?
Cat: That depends on where you are going.
Alice: I don’t know.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.
–Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

5. Seneca

“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favorable.” –Lucius Annaeus Seneca

6. Napoleon Hill

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” –Napoleon Hill

7. Aldous Huxley

“Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor, upon which one walks as a matter of course and prescriptive right.” –Aldous Huxley

8. Thomas Fuller

“A good archer is known not by his arrows but by his aim.” –Thomas Fuller

9. J.M. Power

“If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up.” –J.M. Power

10. H Jackson Brown

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” -Life’s Little Instruction Book, compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

11. Jennifer Yane

“The only thing that has to be finished by next Tuesday is next Monday.” –Jennifer Yane

12. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

13. Charles C. Noble

“You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures.” –Charles C. Noble

14. Bill Copeland

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” –Bill Copeland

15. Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

16. Oliver Wendell Holmes

“The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.” –Oliver Wendell Holmes

17. Brian Tracy

“It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going.” –Brian Tracy

18. Geoffry Abert

“The most important thing about goals is having one.” –Geoffry Abert

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